Communities Of Light

A
community of light is a community which is Based on the
Eternal Divine Pathand
the System Described in
Maitreya’s
Teachings

Man does
not realize this longing within which is for the Infinite, which is
God.

This longing can only be satisfied with Him. Nothing in the
Universe will satisfy this longing of man for complete joy and
happiness. Oneness can come by disciplining ourselves in
all matters and watching ourselves all the time – being watchful of
our actions.

If you are not watching yourself, you do not know why your moods are
swinging up and down. “Why do I feel good today? I did not
feel good yesterday. I felt very good an hour ago. I am
not feeling good anymore. What happened?” Because we do
not know – there are deeper things within us that are affecting us
all the time.

Everyone affects everyone else. Everything in the universe
affects everything else. All particles in the universe have an
affect on each other. We know about the stars, how they affect
each other because they are greater in mass. Yet even the
smallest speck in the universe has power over other specks or other
elements in the universe.

Being watchful means to be disciplined, to overcome the longing of
the physical, mental and ethereal bodies. There are not only
physical longings. We have a lot of psychological longings.
The subconscious mind wants to be something, to be someone, or to be
somewhere or to do something. And all these longings do not
bring satisfaction. We go for them though. That is OK,
as long as we are realizing this is not it – these are not the
answers.

But it is good to know that these will not satisfy the ultimate goal
for which every Soul longs. The ultimate goal is God, the
Divinity, the Oneness with the One. Again, this can be
accomplished much easier in the Communities of Light, because
the Eternal Divine Path is a discipline. The
Communities of Light follow the
Eternal Divine Path.

***

The
Eternal Divine Path has seven steps, or seals. These
are shown in The Greatest Sign.

In order to know God, you have to become familiar with Self and how
the universe has been created (). In this regard, many paths and
much mystical knowledge have been revealed to humanity. This
mystical knowledge is taught in all religions of the world.
The very base of this knowledge is meditation, or going within to
know Self. If you know Self, which is in the image of God,
then you know God. “Man, know thyself” – to know God – because
Self and God are the same.

The first seal of Mystical Paths covers Hinduism, or the Far East
Philosophies. It covers Buddhism; it covers Kabala, the
mystical teaching of the Jewish religion. It covers mystical
Christianity. It covers Sufism in Islam and any other path
that talks about knowing Self is knowing God. So the very
first step in the spiritual journey is to know Self. The
fastest way to know Self is meditation.

In order to meditate you need an environment that supports you in
all levels, so you can have enough time to meditate and know Self.
That is where the Communities of Light (second seal or Star
of David) () come in. If you study the
Old Testament, you will see that God is trying to choose a
people as His own, the people who will accept Him as their King.
They will accept Him as the Highest Authority. And they will
create Communities of Light based on God’s Word, God’s
Teachings, and God’s Commands.

These communities are symbolically represented by the twelve tribes
of Israel. The twelve tribes of Israel had a system – the
triangle upward – which Moses brought to them. They had a very
deep spiritual understanding of God’s Plan and God’s Law – the
triangle downward.

So they had the system (), and they had the Laws and Grace of God (). They were reaching up to God
and God was reaching down to them. That is why they created
the Communities of Light. They became the Children of Israel
-- the Children of Light. Knowing Self will be accelerated in
these communities because you will have the time, support, and
understanding of others to be able to meditate to know God and
become One with Him.

In order to create such communities, you need sacrifice. The
third seal (the cross) () is the symbol of the coming of the
Christ, Esa (Jesus). Esa went to the cross for his ideal.
He showed that in order to create the Communities of the Children
of Light, the utmost sacrifice is necessary. Sacrifice
really means, not being self-centered. It means to be
other-centered, to give up “mine” and “thine” for “ours”.

Sacrifice makes such communities possible. Of course,
sacrifice, like everything else, can be three kinds. It can be
from ignorance, passion, or knowledge. Sacrifice for something
that is not necessary and the person does not need it, is from
ignorance. Sacrifice when you expect something in return is from
passion. When you expect something in return, then it is
really a business, isn’t it? “I do something for you, you do
something for me.” So you are not really doing sacrifice but
you are making a deal. You do this for me and I will do that
for you. Sacrifice from knowledge is when it is done without
expectation, for the good of the community.

At the same time, you always have to be careful. It is just
like a good plant. When you have a good plant, the soil around
the plant is good. So usually the weeds start growing around
it also. The weeds start trying to obtain the nutrition from
the soil where the plants are growing.

Sacrificing has to be done with a very discriminating mind, that you
do not sacrifice for the weeds but for the real plants. So we
have to weed out those elements that use the resources of the
community but really do not give any flower, they do not give any
fruit. You know them by their fruits.

That is why sacrificing is so important. Many communities have
suffered because very few sacrificed to the utmost and many other
‘weeds” just ate their nutrition. Then they became thinner
and thinner. Eventually they died because they did not have
any nutrition themselves to continue. They just gave and gave
and gave. When they no longer gave, those communities fell
apart.

Everyone, even the highest person on earth, has a limit in his
capacity to give. The physical body is very demanding on the
energy. Therefore, you have to weed out those things that will
weaken the community and only bring in those that give fruit.
Then you might be able to help others to a point that they also will
give fruit.

Even in sacrificing, there is a pitfall. After you sacrifice
for a while, you might create two kinds of expectation. You
either say, “Oh, I am sacrificing so much, but why is it not
working?” Sometimes it feels so slow, everything is going slow
and things are not happening. You put so much effort into
people and things, and you think, “It is not happening.” So
you might become discouraged.

The other one is, you sacrifice and you do to gain some results.
And you say, “I am such a great person. Look at me. I am
the person who is doing this. Really, this Mission
needs me. I am really the person running this Mission,”
or this community, etc. Ego comes in.

That is when the surrendering and submission (fourth seal) () should be remembered.
Surrendering means to do the Will of God but surrender the results
to Him. Submission is to ideate that, it is not really me who
is doing it, it is God who is doing it through me.

With submission we become a channel for God, and we sacrifice with a
discriminating mind. We weed out the weeds. We
strengthen the community. Yet at the same time, we never
become very egoistical. We say, “OK, God, You did a good job.
Thank You very much. I will go ahead to another project, to
another thing.”

The very name of Islam means to be submissive to God. Yet,
with being submissive, you still might create a narrow perception of
the universe.

We say, “OK, I just sacrificed and became a channel for God for this
community. I do not care about other communities. I do
not care about the rest of humanity. I do not care about the
rest of the universe. As long as my community is in good
shape, that is enough.” That is where the narrowness and
smallness of the mind comes in.

It is just like a river going to the ocean. As long as the
water continues flowing to the ocean, it stays fresh, it stays
beautiful. It jumps over the rocks and you can see the joy in
it, just like it is laughing. If you listen to the river very
carefully, you can hear the river laughing because it is going to
the ocean.

Just imagine somehow the water in the river was stopped and became a
pond. What happens to a pond? It spoils. It does
not progress any longer. The moment the river does not
progress toward the ocean, or God, what happens? It becomes
spoiled. The frogs start entering it and a lot of unwanted
animals start living in that pond. It becomes smelly, full of
bugs and germs. It is no longer connected. It is no longer
progressing. It no longer has joy and does not laugh!

That is what happens when a person does not become a universalist
(fifth seal) (). A universalist means that he
sees that God is everything and the universe is God. There is no
separation between any element in this universe and any other
element. So he realizes that whatever separates any portion of
the Universe from another portion, is narrow. That is not from
God. That is dogma. Universalism is the very pivotal
point in the Baha’i teaching. The Baha’i teaching is
Universalism.

So by meditation and becoming familiar with the Spirit within (First
Seal) () we will understand the mystical part
in humans, we know ourselves. Then by trying to create the
Communities of Light (Second Seal) (), sacrificing to create the
Communities of Light (Third Seal) () and becoming submissive to God
(Fourth Seal) (), we awaken our spiritual forces.
If we look at The Greatest Sign in the Fourth Seal, the
spiritual force has become vertical now (), as God’s is ().

When you are submissive, your spiritual forces are awakened.
This is not the same as the people who love to have a lot of powers.
It is OK, if some powers came to you, it is fine. If, during
your spiritual progress some powers came to you, they are a gift of
The Holy Ghost. That is OK, use them for the good of humanity,
but do not be proud of them and show them off. Do not become
carried away by them. “Oh, I have this healing power. I
am channeling. I can bend a fork.” Having these gifts is
great, but how can I help humanity? This is greater. It
is our birthright to have these gifts. Anyone can have these gifts,
but few are blessed by the gift of submission!

Then, when we become submissive, this submission brings us the
feeling that even that gift is from God. When we awaken our
spiritual forces, then God is manifested through us in Truth.
He and us are One because our spiritual forces are awakened.
We are One in Spirit. See, the I-Ching is vertical in the
center sign and () the I-Ching in the Fourth Seal is
vertical (). The spiritual forces are
awakened.

After becoming a universalist, seeing God is everywhere and in
everything and there is no separation (), you become an Elect (Sixth Seal) (). That is who an Elect is.
An Elect is a person who knows himself (First Seal) (). He tries to create the
Communities of Light (Second Seal) (). He sacrifices for the
Communities of Light (Third Seal) (). He becomes submissive to God
(Fourth Seal) (), a universalist (Fifth Seal) (), and then he becomes an Elect (Sixth
Seal) (
). With all these steps, he
reaches the Goal, Pure Consciousness (Seventh Seal) ().

An Elect is not a religious name. He or she is not Jewish, or
Hindu, or Moslem, or Christian. He has the quality of that
which he has acquired. Such a person is open and is a dynamic
spiritual force. These people will lead humanity to Oneness
with God, to Pure Consciousness ().

So really, as we can see, the spiritual forces are awakened in the
Fourth Seal (). By the time we come to the
Sixth Seal (), as we go through the Eternal
Divine Path, our spiritual forces are fully awakened. We
are One with God in all levels. In this Sixth Seal (), we manifest God’s qualities
completely. There is no narrowness of the mind. There is
no separation. There is no mine and thine. There is no
my country, your country, my religion, your religion, my this and my
that. It is “What is God’s Plan?”

God’s Plan is to bring Unity in the universe. What makes us
not be unified and One? Our egos, which separate us from one
another.

As we can see,
The Greatest Sign represents the Seven Seals that have been
prophesied will come to earth. It explains a greater truth
which contains all the major religions and all the Mystical
Paths on earth. Not only does it show the path to Pure
Consciousness or Oneness with God, it also unifies everyone
together. It shows how all have come from one God and all only
have part of His Truth. When we put all of these seals
together, we will become one. The whole is greater than its
parts!

That is the purest, most clear teaching or revelation for humanity.
This can create unity for humanity and make them come out of this
dead end that they are in. As we said, you have to accept God
and His Teachings. You have to accept His Will. You have
to accept His Message and work toward Its fulfillment.

Its fulfillment is really very simple. It is to create the
Communities of Light. That is where the power goes to the
people. The Communities of Light
are really where we can say, it is a system for the people, by the
people, and of the people. It is in the hands of the people
and that is how we can give the power to the people – the people
whose minds, decisions, and communities are based on God and God’s
Plan.

These communities will create the hierarchy, or the system. It
is these communities that will create the hierarchy on earth and
will bring unity to humanity. And it will happen, not by
force, but in a very evolutionary manner, because these communities
are of the people, and it is the people who will change the earth,
not anyone else. Because it evolves from the people and
because it is the desire of God and His Will, it will happen.

It has been prophesied that He will come as the King and we have to
accept Him as the King. These communities will accept Him as
the King. And because they accept Him as the King, He will
come. His Will is to see this happen. Therefore, that is
the only way to bring peace and unity to humanity. That is why
we emphasize the creation of the Communities of Light.

***

The only
issue is the formation of the Communities of Light.
Other issues are the effect, not the cause. The cause is the
unfulfilled basic needs of individuals to be in a community with
other like-minded people, and the lack of creation of basic
relationships in this level in Spirit.

These communities cannot exist separately from one another. By
linking themselves together they also will create the power to
influence the events and correct the problems.

The ecological problems and other problems cannot be solved unless
we spread the factories evenly all throughout the earth, especially
to deserts and isolated places, and also by developing clean
industries based on Spiritual Science. This will only be
revealed to humanity if we learn our lessons and share.
Otherwise this knowledge will be misused as occurred in the past,
and the misuse of anything results in suffering.

Intellectuals who can only exist based on the confusion of the mass,
bring many issues into our minds and make us confused about the
simple issue of our basic needs and the cause of the issues.
Then we become lost in the jungle of these confused issues and do
not see the simple solution.

Therefore, do not let the many issues confuse you. The issue
and solution, is the formation of the Communities of Light
based on the Eternal Divine Path, and networking between
them. Then we can easily solve other issues.

***

Not every
community is a Community of Light. The communities that
follow
The Greatest Sign or the seven steps of the Divine Path
are the
Communities of Light. Only these communities can solve
humanity’s problems, can heal themselves, the earth and the
universe, physically, mentally, and spiritually.